Event report

It can be argued that it was Booker T. Jones who set the cast for modern soul music and is largely responsible for its rise and enduring popularity. On classic Stax hits like “Green Onions,” “Hang ‘Em High,” “Time Is Tight,” and “Melting Pot” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Musicians Hall of Fame inductee and GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award recipient pushed the music’s boundaries, refined it to its essence and then injected it into the nation’s bloodstream. Sound the Alarm, the new album from Booker T, finds the Hammond B3 organ master looking ahead yet again, laying down his distinctive bedrock grooves amid a succession of sparkling collaborations with some of contemporary R&B’s most gifted young voices.

You may have spotted Brooklyn-born, Swiss-raised, Canadian-based singer and actress Shakura S’Aida performing at a Festival in Dubai or Russia, on the Legendary Blues Cruise, performing alongside her muses, Jackie Richardson and Kellylee Evans in The Nina Project, a show she created just for them featuring the music and lyrics of Nina Simone or acting in TV shows Lost Girl, Schitt’s Creek or even Flashpoint. From her beginnings over 20 years ago as world music band Kaleefah’s lead singer, this versatile blues/rock/soul vocalist and consummate performer has blown audiences away with her scorching vocal style, uncanny ability to deliver powerful original songs and also get deep into the guts of the most venerable standard.